ALTADENA, Calif. — In an unexpected encounter last week, a Southern California resident discovered a 500-pound bear had taken up residence beneath his home.
Ken Johnson, a product photographer based in Altadena, recounted how he first became aware of his enormous houseguest. Last Tuesday, he checked his surveillance footage and was startled to find a bear nestled in the crawl space under his property.
“Back in June, I noticed some unusual damage,” Johnson explained to ABC7 Eyewitness News. “The crawl space was completely torn up—bricks were displaced, and the structure was ripped apart. That’s when I decided to set up a camera to catch the culprit in action.”
His curiosity was piqued after watching a YouTube video featuring another Altadena resident who had a similar bear encounter. This led him to suspect that he might be facing the same situation.
“The setup looked eerily similar to mine, so I thought there was a chance,” he said. “Sure enough, the camera soon captured footage of a bear emerging from under the space. It’s been coming and going all week.”
The bear’s chosen abode is directly under Johnson’s kitchen, allowing him to clearly hear the bear’s movements from above.
“I thought he’d be long gone by now. It’s unnerving,” he said.
In fact, Johnson said he even came pretty close to the bear when he was trying to change the camera’s batteries.
“I went to replace the batteries and this huge growl came from underneath the space and scared me to death,” he said. “I couldn’t stop shaking. It’s the strangest sound, too. It’s like a roar but it’s got this hiss on it too, like a dragon. I mean, it’s just incredible, and coming out from underneath that space, it just reverberates even more … just horrible.”
Johnson said he contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and was told a biologist from San Diego will look into the case. Eyewitness News has also contacted the department and is awaiting a response.
Copyright © 2025 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.
